100 years since SS Waratah disappeared off the Wild Coast

The Waratah 1908 - 29 July 1909

The Waratah 1908 - 29 July 1909Source: Daily Dispatch

The SS Waratah, sometimes referred to as "Australia's Titanic", was a 500 foot steamer. In July 1909, the ship, en route from Durban to Cape Town, disappeared with 211 passengers and crew aboard. The disappearance of the ship remains one of the most baffling nautical mysteries of all time. To this day no trace of the ship has ever been found.

According to Dispatch archives, the 10 000 ton ship passed along the Transkei coast on July 28, 1909 after stopping off in Durban the previous day.

It was heading to London and would have stopped over in Cape Town before setting sail on the high seas. A Dispatch report from July 1971 said: “Two people had disembarked in Durban – one to find a job and the other after he dreamt that the ship would sink – and after being spotted by two other ships along the Transkei coast, the Waratah disappeared in what was to become ‘one of the most baffling nautical mysteries of all time’.”

;As it sailed past the Transkei coast, between the mouths of the Bashee and Xora rivers, the ship is said to have encountered bad weather and battled to sail against high winds, a combination of tide and turbulent ocean swell.

Carrying provisions on board to last a year, the Waratah is said to have fallen victim to a freak wave, capsized and been sucked to the ocean floor with all aboard. In the 100 years since it disappeared various theories have tried to explain its demise.

Numerous attempts to salvage it and a few sightings have been reported, with none proving to be true. A world genealogy website reports initial theories suggested it remained adrift for a while and was carried away from the southern African shoreline and drifted into the Antarctic Circle where passengers and crew died of cold and starvation, the ship itself eventually being crushed to pieces in the southern ice.

“Another possibility was that the ship blew up because of an explosion due to heating of her bunker coal, bringing a quick and painful death to all on board,” the website reports.

Agreeing with the theory that the ship went down in a storm, Smit said debris wasn’t found because everything was secured tightly when the storm hit.

He said the ship was either deliberately steered away from the coast to avoid it bashing onto rocks, or it was driven away from the shore by the current, and swept past the southern African tip away from the coastline. “Since they found the Titanic, why can’t they find the Waratah,” Smit asked. - By NTANDO MAKHUBU

More info: Wikipedia

Comments

Thank you for responding to my post. I have been fascinated by the story of the Waratah for years, but only recently went into 'search mode' myself for whatever information I could find on the ship. The more I have read about the search, and the more I have read about the theories surrounding the disappearance, the more that the unlikey or implausible seems to in fact be likely or plausible. When you have exhausted all reasonable or logical conclusions, then whatever remains is your answer. Turning over and floating for a few days before sinking-absolutely possible (I'd say as likely as not)! As difficult as it may be for me to believe, the possibility of it breaking down, drifting for weeks or even months, and then sinking in a storm now seems very likely also. That would take it away from any logical search area, and make finding it impossible. To your point about another ship spotting bodies, but NOT picking them up or investigating further (in light of the great storms that frequent the area) is not only astonishing, but also reprehnsible! Regardless of the circumstances, those 'bodies' were once someone's loved ones-fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers-and deserved more respect that to be callously passed by because a Captain did not want to 'upset his female passangers' (as was reported). Please give Mr. Brown my best and tell him he definitely not alone in his curiosity about the last great mystery of the sea!

Gooday, Please could you send me Emlyn Browns contact details. We are tinkering with some new technology where we hope we can try and identify "anomalies" off the Transkei coast not previously identified as wrecks in the hope that one may turn out to be the "Waratah". We are hoping to be able to identify these in depths to 3000m.

I have an interest in the Waratah. My father's Christening Mug is in the Captain's safe. He was a friend of my grandmother's family, and was given the mug by family members in Australia when my father was born, to bring back to UK. The search for the vessel is of great interest to me, so if anyone knows of any expeditions to try and find her, I would really appreciatehearing about them. Regards, Paddy Secretan Barcombe, East Sussex, UK

Dear paddy Was some of your family on the ship I maybe able to find the ship Regards David Pells Ocean Construction and Salvage

According to accounts by various people,she was considered to be a "tender" ship from new,needing care to move even in port,....designed to be a sister ship to "GEELONG"she was reportedly not as stable,l seem to recall reading somewhere that even Captain Ilbery was unhappy with her "she is top heavy but l will take her anyway" is a comment said to have been made by him....the facts are fairly well known,she vanished somewhere near the bashee river,with shipping ahead and astern of her,all of which made port,there is talk of "waratah weather",indicating unusual conditions found only in that area,a ship in or expecting heavy weather will obviously batten down,which,assuming she did not break up,could account for the lack of wreckage if she turned over rapidly-it would all be trapped under the hull-l am at a loss to understand a captain not stopping to pick up bodies at sea,there can be no supportable defence for such an act,if these WERE bodies,then the odds of identifying them would have been good,if they were from "WARATAH"then the search area could have been narrowed...be that as it may,it is my belief that she was caught by a wave whilst "hanging"at the end of a roll,if her bow wre pressed down at the same time she would carry out a very fast corkscrew roll in the same direction as the original roll,becoming inverted in a few seconds,but in rough weather l would expect her to at least partially right herself before finally filling and sinking..l believe she will eventually be found,and l think she will not be far from "CLAN MACKINTYRE,S" last sighting, though it is entirly possible that her final plunge took her over the edge of the shelf and into abbysal waters.

I am really suprised at how almost all internet mystery-sinking threads seem to miss three very basic points that appear entirely by-passed. The most obvious starting point being well documented similar occurances. These details are easily accessable by doing a google/you tube search on the loss, 80 years later, of a modern cruise ship sinking in virtually identical conditions, and within a stones throw of the suspected Waratha site. Excellent sinking-graphics and filming of the Oceanos going down are simple to come by, and show just how easily it could happen today, let alone how much easier it could have occured back in 1909. The next point focusses on deconstructing the two myths that have elevated this tragedy to a great maritime mystery, way up there with the Mary Celeste and the Flying Dutchman. 1. The ship was never found... Is this really so strage? Without the type of funding spent in locating the Titanic, unchartered, and unpredictable ocean foors, is it not in fact more likely that the ships location is as yet undiscovered. 2. The disembarking passengers phrophecy.... This is the crucial part of the legend. Every great story needs that little bit of extra flavour....enter the passenger who's phophecys and warnings were ignored, but who escaped certain death after questioning the ships sea-worthyness, and being visited in his sleep by visions of the ships fate. He attempts in vain to warn fellow passengers of impending doom should they ignore the warnings, and even writes-off the cost of the remainder of his ticket home, so certain is he of that all aboard the cursed vessel shall perish. The disembarking passenger sends a telegram home stating his predictions prior to the ship leaving port, and ensures written proof that his Nostradamus-esque predictions are recorded in time to ensure the twist that will propell this ship's fate into maritime legend forever. A recently published article by Fortean dares to question this crucial element of the story, which sheds an entirely new light on events. Do tune in tomorrow for concluding chapter. Anton, London.

You wrong about about the waratah not been found

The passenger Sawyer...The man who was blessed with life-saving visions of impending doom, a latter-day Nostradamus, a man so convinced of the ship's unsea-worthyness that he jumped ship in South Africa en-route back to England, sacrificing his precious onward ticket, and tried in vain to warn other passengers of their fate. All very entertaining, and certainly the difference between a simple vessel loss and one terrific mystery, but how many of the facts here have been slightly distorted, or at best glossed over in order to create a somewhat better story. Lets begin with Sawyer's journey from Sydney to his home in England. What may have slipped everybody's attention is that he boarded the ship in Sydney. From there, it docked at Melbounre and Adelaide before heading for Durban. Sawyer therefore had two earlier ports he could have alighted at, and a distance of 800 nautical miles, in which he could have concluded the ship was unsafe, and declined to continue his voyage. Most articles also seem to deliberately mislead readers into believing Sawyer was in possession of an England-bound ticket, a man who's unshakeable convictions on the ships fate led him to give up a significant financial sum by sacrificing his home-bound ticket by jumping ship in Durban. This is without doubt the biggest flaw of the the entire story, as it provides the legend with an almost supernatural quality that has been greatly embellished over time. Sawyer had in fact only paid as far as Cape Town, the next post of call. Having journeyed past 2 ealier feasible drop-off ports, if his firm beliefs in the ships unsafety are to be believed, he jumped-ship just one port short of his final destination, having got over 95% of his moneysworth already. With this in mind, the great gesture of giving up one's non-refundable ticket price, his futuristic-vision convictions become somewhat less impressive. Next, the telegram home, definate proof of preminations...well, not exactly, in those days, as in these, a message home notifying all of any schedule-alterations were routine. Telegrams were not cheap, and as they were charged by the word, tended to be short. Sawyer's certainly did not mince words, but was this perhaps the deliberately shortest phrasing he might have used to convey his delayed arrival, and if so why....? Concluded tomorrow. Anton, London

Really enjoying your posts on the Waratah, and looking forward to the conclusion... :)

26 July, 1909, Durban...an unexpected passenger disembarks from a London-bound ship and will set into motion a series of events that will catapault its imminent loss into maritime folklore forever. Most of his contribution stems from a very short telegram home stating his unexpected early departure from the vessel was based upon his doubts on her sea-worthyness. The testimony of the passengers who chose to ignore Sawyer's phophecy's cannot be verified, as they left no statement either way prior to their demise. All that is certain is that Sawyer had already seen fit to pass two possible earlier exit ports, and had far less to loose than most on board by getting off just one stop short of his final destination, with well over 95% of his paid for voyage already behind him. What is less reported, but not denied, is that Sawyer was also seeking some sort of assistance for a medical ailment of some form. Vague references are made towards a from of Neurosis. The topic is then discreetly shelved. Archchair diagnostics today can do a very quick search to find this possible diagnosis, if correct, opens up a veritable Pandora's Box of possibilities and explanations for our lead character, with vivid nightmares and psychosis being just the tip of the iceberg. But there is no need to have our lead-character dismissed as a nut-case. Whatever Sawyer's mental capacities at the time might have been, they play just a supporting role in the legend. It is a chapter that could diminish the value of the only supernatural wittness in this tale, and so the less said about it the better if the whole mystery-legend angle is gonna float..... Lets instead return to Sawyer, wisely heeding the phrophecy, sacrificing his onward ticket and now about to jump ship once it arrives in Africa. Africa....the dark continent...untamed, and as Wild as the stretch of coast gives its name to where the Waratha was lost. Perhaps the natives were restless when the Waratha approached the shores of Africa. Perhaps their drums beat to the rhythm of the ancestors, perhaps the spirits of the ancestors were resentfull of ships from afar who had brought nothing but evil, or perhaps this entire paragraph is an excercise in phoney-baloney mood setting to remind us of what 1909 readers would have percieved Durban/Zululand to have been like. Unlike the far more urbane Cape Town, Durban would indeed qualify as the Waratha's most untamed and uncivilized port of call for a disembarking English gentleman, which would again add credence to the theory that by alighting here, Sawyer is demonstrating a resolve so strong that he gets off at the most inconvinient, and unknown of all possible ports. But just how unfamiliar was Sawyer with Durban....? Stay tuned.... Anton, London.

Add new comment

Total views: 107,120